The manager at Jessica's Furniture Store is trying to figure out how much to charge for a desk that just arrived. If the desk was bought at a wholesale price of $91.00 and Jessica's Furniture Store marks up all furniture by 50%, at what price should the manager sell the desk?
Solution: In order to find the retail price, we must first find the amount of markup. Remember that a markup rate is a percentage of the wholesale price that a store adds to get a selling or retail price. With this knowledge, we can figure out the following equation: markup rate $\times$ wholesale price $=$ amount of markup Since the markup rate is a percentage, we have to convert it into a decimal first. Percent means "out of one hundred," so $50\%$ is equivalent to $\frac{50}{100}$ which is also equal to $50 \div 100$ $50 \div 100 = 0.50$ Now you have all the information you need to find the amount of markup! $0.50$ $\times$ $$91.00$ $=$ $$45.50$ Since the markup rate is a percentage of the wholesale price that is added to get the retail price, we can find the retail price with the following equation: amount of markup $+$ wholesale price $=$ retail price $$45.50$ $+$ $$91.00$ $=$ $$136.50$ The retail price of the desk should be $$136.50$.